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All 8 is Old News

Ahh good ol’ All 8. An unspoken task on the checklist of summer setups. The feel-good group of tricks that once stomped, came with a realization that maybe you aren’t as shitty of a skier as you once thought. A once impressive feat to accomplish, now mere dust in the wind of others.

Progression seems to immediately attach itself to spin-to-win skiing, a perfect showing being the transition from doubles to triples becoming the norm in competitions. But it’s often forgotten that it can just as easily relate to other kinds of skiing as well. What about the progression of urban skiing into another realm of creativity, exposed by Magnus Graner's recent Real Ski win? Or even the increased open-mindedness of organizations towards changing contest formats, courses, and ideas. Progression can occur in all different shapes and sizes.

Now back to All 8. If you don’t know what this legitimately refers to, it is all 8 different possible directions of a switch up 270 out. There was a time not too long ago when All 8 meant something, something only the big dogs could easily pull off. These days, when it comes to counting these rail tricks, simply start switch, do a 450 out, or 270 on and the resulting options are almost infinite. And so the progression ensued. Gone are the days of All 8, it takes a whole lot more to muster up the wow factor today.

It is now skiing such as the rail trickery of the crazy Swede Jesper Tjader that stands out from the rest, where he decides to tack on lipslide, switch tails, and switch lipslide on, bringing his total tally to 32. And it’s not just him. The number of common skiers able to put down more than the original All 8 is consistently rising. Whether it’s innovating a new trick, or doing the same trick in a different direction, skiing is always changing, always growing. It is clear that progression is happening on all fronts of the ski world.